Samson Kimani's Blog

While you may really love your pet, not everyone is an animal lover. If you’re planning on selling your home soon, and you have a pet, make sure that Fido doesn’t chase away potential buyers. From the damage that pets can do to potential allergies that buyers may have, a pet can be a detriment to selling your home. Heed these tips below before selling a home with pets:

Before You List Your Home, Move Your Pets

You don’t need to give up your pets in order to sell your home, but it’s a good idea to find them another place to stay while your home is on the market. This will make it easier for the open house and if other agents want to show the home to potential buyers. Dogs barking and cats creeping around may drive potential buyers away. Even the idea of pet food and a water bowl may make a potential buyer suspicious as to whether the pet has caused any sort of damage around the home. If you find a place for your pets to stay, you can eliminate a lot of these problems.

If You Can’t Send The Pets Away, Keep Them Out Of Sight

Before a home showing, be sure to clean up any pet items that are around the house including toys, food, and pet bowls. The pet can go with you while you’re out of the house for a showing. It’s not that you’re being secretive about having a pet, yet, you shouldn’t call attention to the fact that pets have been present in the home.

Clean Your House

When you decide to sell your home, give it a deep clean. Vacuum the house up and get pet hair off of the furniture. You may even want to run an air filtration system to get dust and pet dander out of the air. This will prevent potential allergic buyers from sneezing their way through a home showing.

Don’t forget to clean up the yard as well in this process of getting the home ready for a home showing. Any “gifts” that have been left behind by your pets should be cleaned up in the yard. You don’t want potential homebuyers ruining their shoes and their home showing experience.

Giving your home a deep clean will also help to eliminate any pet odors that may be in the home. It’s hard for owners to pick up on these smells, as your noses become accustomed to it. Buyers can smell pets right away! Change the litter box and use some anti-odor prays to help get any of the stench from animals out of the home. Opening the windows in your home can also work wonders to change the air and the smell in the space.

Even though it might be a bit hard for your pet through the process of selling your home, with the extra revenue that you’ll make, you can get your pet their very own luxury space!

Pets are a part of the family. When we welcome a new dog into the home, we often expect them to meet our standards of behavior without much guidance. Dogs, like children, require consistent training from all members of the family. They need positive reinforcement and clear signals from you to teach them what behavior is acceptable.

In this article, we’re going to cover some important house training tips for you and your canine companion. We’ll look at some of the common mistakes that new pet owners make, and talk about ways to curb undesirable behavior like chewing shoes or furniture or barking at windows.

Traits vs. behaviors

One common mistake new pet owners make is to attempt to place character traits on their dog. Words like pushy, protective, mischievous, etc. are all adjectives that we often use to describe our dogs.

However, as dog owners and home owners, our energy is better spent on recognizing and correcting behaviors. If your dog tears at a carpet or chews the corner of your sofa, it isn’t very helpful sitting around thinking of adjectives to describe your dog (like restless or anxious). Rather, we should think about the behavior itself and how to replace it.

Let’s jump right into some household behaviors and ways to replace them with desirable alternatives.

Chewing

Chewing is an important part of a dog’s life. Chewing itself is not a negative behavior, but when your dog starts demolishing furniture or eating your homework, it’s time to take steps to curb this behavior.

First, make sure your dog is eating a healthy diet and getting enough exercise. Dogs who aren’t eating a fat and protein rich food or who are overeating are prone to having excessive energy. If they’re trapped indoors and have nothing to focus that energy on, they’ll turn to chewing things they aren’t supposed to.

To focus your dog’s energy on positive behaviors, take your dog for a walk, jog, or play with them. If you notice your dog attempting to chew things they shouldn’t be, draw their attention away and provide them with a better alternative.

Barking

Just like chewing, barking is not in itself a negative behavior. It’s when your dog barks excessively and inappropriately that it becomes problematic.

Dogs bark for several reasons: to get you to play, to show that they’re stressed or bored, and so on. If your dog spends a lot of time monitoring doors and windows and barking at passersby, there are a few things you can do to curb the behavior.

First, take away the trigger. In this case, that could be closing the curtains or restricting your dog’s access to the room. If your dog is worried about strangers passing by the house, they are likely already too tense to begin training an alternative behavior to barking. If it’s noises that alarm your dog, try playing soft music to mask the noises for a day or two.

Once you’re ready to start training, have someone walk past outside where your dog can see from the window or make a noticeable noise outside. Reward your dog with treats when they do not react until they become more comfortable with the outside distractions.

Tips For Training Your Puppy
Rescuing a puppy in need of food, warmth, shelter, and love is a heart-motivated event. Inviting your new friend into your home, a joy-filled act of love and compassion that is often amongst a pet owner’s most cherished memories.
Begin Basic Obedience Training Early
The first few weeks of your puppy’s time in his new environment should be focused primarily on socializing and bonding. Begin basic training early. Be a leader and establish boundaries and a pup’s house training process.
To avoid chewed up shoes and soiled carpets, note unwanted behavior with a stern “No” command and positive behavior with “Good Dog”, a tasty treat and loving praise. Be firm in voice and actions. Your dog senses your level of confidence and responses accordingly. It is a whole lot easier to teach your puppy how you want him to behave now than to try to correct bad habits later. While your puppy’s body is still growing, his brain is fully developed and ready to learn.
Just remember puppies are young, curious, and have a short attention span becoming easily bored or distracted. Keep lesson times brief, but frequent throughout the day. A puppy is constantly learning; train early and train often. Make sure your dog learns positive lessons and not the wrong ones.
Always be consistent with your commands. In all circumstances use the same primary words such as “come”, “sit”, “stay”, and “down”. These are the same commands you will use throughout your dog’s life. Whatever words you choose for these basic instructions does not matter, just be sure to always use the same command for each desired positive behavior. It is imperative that you can control your dog to ensure his/her safety.
The best way to ensure that your new pet will become an obedient and pleasing companion is to train your pup well from the start. A well-socialized dog is relaxed, friendly, and at ease around new people and in new situations. During training, reward positive response to your command with a tasty treat, effusive praise, and physical affection. You are the “Alpha” leader and your dog wants to please.
Puppy “Boot Camp”
Look online or in the phone book to locate a local puppy “boot camp” program for early dog training. Interacting with other dogs is a great way for your puppy to learn to socialize and get over separation anxiety from his/her littermates.
Ask Others For Help
Seek help from other family members and friends. Enlist the help of older children in the training process so that they can learn along with the new addition to the family. The more people you can involve in your dog’s training, the better. You don’t want your dog to view you as the only individual whose commands he must obey. Having other people involved in your dog’s training is also helpful in keeping him from regressing in your absence.
Special Training Treats
Training treats should be small and highly flavorful with a strong scent. Professional trainers, often use dehydrated bites of chicken liver or salmon jerky nuggets. Find a special treat that your puppy especially enjoys and reserve it for training rewards only.